Lab Work Sunday 15 Nov. 2013 Part I

At the Institute we have a unique institution called lab work. Students are given materials to study and questions are set on the materials given. They form groups for discussion. Two groups function one at Indiranagar and the other at Basavanagudi. As soon as group completes its work, it sends the same by e mail to a coordinator who projects the answer on the White Board and comments are added. Then the Coordinator sends the same to the other place. The Indiranagar answers are posted on the Basavanagudi White Board and vice versa. This fosters a competitive spirit and makes the students understand the best answer.

This week the Speech of Balakrishnan former CJ and another article on Judicial Activism were set for group work.

This is a unique use of e mail. Any suggestions for further innovation?

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10 thoughts on “Lab Work Sunday 15 Nov. 2013 Part I”

What was the initial attitude of the S.C. towards the rights of the people.
The initial attitude of the supreme court was one of diifidence but gradually it began to derive several rights from the Constitution itself. This led towards upholding the social and economic rights of the people such as
–
1.To bring effective and transparent change in governance
2.Assuring adequate means of livelihood.
3.To protect clean environment
4. Free and compulsory education

The Supreme Court has enlarged scope of fundamentals rights by giving liberal interpretation such as –
1. Right to Health(NRHM)
2. Right to Education
3. Right to legal assistance
4. Right to Information
5. Right to food
6. Right to clean environment
7. Right to work(MGNREA)
Mahantesh,Kumar,Subramanya,Amaresh

• This right has emerged from a number of petitions and PILs in the SC, ranging from PILs concerning workers health and safety and petitions seeking emergency medical care etc.
• Also, Article.47 in the Directive Principles, declares that “State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people and improvement of public health as its primary duties”.
• In a series of cases dealing with substantive content of right to life, the SC had found that the right to live with dignity includes Right to good Health.
• In 1995, SC in CERC vs. Union of India case, explicitly held that ‘the right to health …. is an integral part and fact of meaningful right to life’.
• Hence reading Art.21 with relevant Directive Principles in article 38, 39E, 41, 43 & 48A, the SC held that the right to health and medical care is a fundamental right.
-By Mithun, Nitesh and Vidyakrishna

Prof. Rao

The Supreme Court goes by the doctrine of Swayambhu or implied rights. Thus the Right to life includes many rights which though not specifically mentioned are implied in the Right to life.

Social rights litigation in the Supreme Court has been radical, where the Court has recognised new rights and designed interesting new remedies for their enforcement and that they have been made enforceable despite them not being included as justiciable Fundamental rights in the constitution
SC has created the following new rights:
– Right to Food,
– Right to education
– Right to health
• -tanuj,yeshwanth

Q: What was the initial attitude of Supreme court to the social and economic rights of the people and how did it change ?

Initially, SC had a narrow and adopted a Macro Economic view. It advised the Government to undertake irrigation works and provide more jobs to the people. As in the case which was filed on behalf of the tribals of Kalahandi , Orissa who were forced to sell their children unable to feed themselves and their children during severe drought.
After the emergency, there has been a perceptible change in the judicial attitude.
The Indian Supreme Court has been reaffirming that both the fundamental rights and the DPSPs must be interpreted harmoniously.
Because they supplement each other in aiming at the same goal of bringing about a social revolution and the establishment of a welfare state, which is envisaged in the Preamble.
Thus it laid the foundations for the principle that socio-economic rights are complimentary, interdependent and indivisible with civil and political rights.
Finally in Unnikrishnan vs Union of India (RTE judgement), Justice Jeevan Reddy said: ‘The provisions of Part III and IV are supplementary and complementary to each other and not exclusionary of each other and that the fundamental rights are but a means to achieve the goal indicated in Part IV.’
Anil

Prof. Rao

The Supreme Court goes by the doctrine of Swayambhu or implied rights. Thus the Right to life includes many rights which though not specifically mentioned are implied in the Right to life.

How was the SC influenced by the analysis of Rosco Pound with respect to rights?

The Idea of Roscoe Pound Obersvation with respect to rights is to be bring SOCIAL CHANGES in the state like,
Elimination of Coercive power of Castiest and Feudal social structure by Universal Adult Franchise system.
Supreme court (SC) intervention to drive social transformations such as Expansion of Art 21
SC hears and directs through using the innovative remedies in PIL cases such as Vishaka Singh vs Rajastan State.

By Mahantesh , Amaresh,Kumar,Subramanya

Prof. Rao

The SC has very effectively accepted the view that recognition of new rights can lead to better Governance and a better Society
Rao

Examine the milestones of PIL in India. Show how the doctrine of Locus Standi has been modified in the following cases: Husainaara Khatoon vs State of Bihar, the case of inhuman conditions in Old Age Homes in Bihar and bonded labourers.

The Hussainara Khatoon v. State of Bihar case was concerned with a series of articles published in a prominent newspaper – the Indian Express which exposed the plight of undertrial prisoners in the state of Bihar. A writ petition was filed by an advocate drawing the Court’s attention to the deplorable plight of these prisoners who had been in jail for longer periods than the maximum permissible sentences for the offences they had been charged with. The SC accepted the locus standi of the advocate to maintain the writ petition.
The SC gave directions through which the ‘right to speedy trial’ was deemed to be an integral and an essential part of the protection of life and personal liberty.
Two noted professors of law filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court highlighting various abuses of the law, which, they asserted, were a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution. These included inhuman conditions prevailing in protective homes, long pendency of trials in court, trafficking of women, importation of children for homosexual purposes, and the non-payment of wages to bonded labourers among others. The SC accepted their locus standi to represent the suffering masses and passed guidelines and orders that greatly ameliorated the conditions of these people
-tanuj,yashwanth

Prof. Rao
This way a constitution framed nearky seven decades ago can be expanded to meet the needs of the present.